Ubuntu Manpage: stilts-tcatn - Concatenates multiple tables

NAME

       stilts-tcatn - Concatenates multiple tables

SYNOPSIS

       stilts tcatn [nin=<count>] [ifmtN=<in-format>] [inN=<tableN>] [icmdN=<cmds>] [ocmd=<cmds>]
                    [omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui]
                    [out=<out-table>] [ofmt=<out-format>] [seqcol=<colname>] [loccol=<colname>]
                    [uloccol=<colname>] [countrows=true|false]

DESCRIPTION

       tcatn is a tool for concatenating a number of tables one after the other. Each  table  can
       be  manipulated  separately prior to the concatenatation. If you have two tables T1 and T2
       which contain similar columns, and you want to treat them as a single table, you  can  use
       tcatn  to  produce  a  new table whose metadata (row headings etc) comes from T1 and whose
       data consists of all the rows of T1 followed by all the rows of T2.

       For this concatenation to make sense, each column  of  T1  must  be  compatible  with  the
       corresponding column of T2 - they must have compatible types and, presumably, meanings. If
       this is not the case for the tables that you wish to concatenate, for instance the columns
       are  in  different  orders,  or  the  units differ between a column in T1 and its opposite
       number in T2, you can use the icmd1 and/or icmd2 parameters to manipulate the input tables
       so that the column sequences are compatible. See SUN/256 for some examples.

       If  the  tables  are  similar to each other (same format, same columns, same preprocessing
       stages required if any), you may find it easier to use tcat instead.

OPTIONS

nin=<count>
The number of input tables for this task. For each of the input tables N there will
be associated parameters ifmtN, inN and icmdN.

ifmtN=<in-format>
Specifies the format of input table #N as specified by parameter inN. The known
formats are listed in SUN/256. This flag can be used if you know what format your
table is in. If it has the special value (auto) (the default), then an attempt will
be made to detect the format of the table automatically. This cannot always be done
correctly however, in which case the program will exit with an error explaining
which formats were attempted. This parameter is ignored for scheme-specified
tables.

inN=<tableN>
The location of input table #N. This may take one of the following forms:

* A filename.

* A URL.

* The special value "-", meaning standard input. In this case the input format
must be given explicitly using the ifmtN parameter. Note that not all formats
can be streamed in this way.

* A scheme specification of the form :<scheme-name>:<scheme-args>.

* A system command line with either a "<" character at the start, or a "|"
character at the end ("<syscmd" or "syscmd|"). This executes the given pipeline
and reads from its standard output. This will probably only work on unix-like
systems.
In any case, compressed data in one of the supported compression formats (gzip,
Unix compress or bzip2) will be decompressed transparently.

icmdN=<cmds>
Specifies processing to be performed on input table #N as specified by parameter
inN, before any other processing has taken place. The value of this parameter is
one or more of the filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than one is given,
they must be separated by semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be
repeated multiple times on the same command line to build up a list of processing
steps. The sequence of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline
which is performed on the table.

Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
character '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for
a list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated by
newline characters and/or semicolons, and lines which are blank or which start with
a '#' character are ignored.

ocmd=<cmds>
Specifies processing to be performed on the output table, after all other
processing has taken place. The value of this parameter is one or more of the
filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than one is given, they must be
separated by semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be repeated multiple
times on the same command line to build up a list of processing steps. The sequence
of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline which is performed on
the table.

omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui
The mode in which the result table will be output. The default mode is out, which
means that the result will be written as a new table to disk or elsewhere, as
determined by the out and ofmt parameters. However, there are other possibilities,
which correspond to uses to which a table can be put other than outputting it, such
as displaying metadata, calculating statistics, or populating a table in an SQL
database. For some values of this parameter, additional parameters (<mode-args>)
are required to determine the exact behaviour.

Possible values are

* out

* meta

* stats

* count

* checksum

* cgi

* discard

* topcat

* samp

* tosql

* gui
Use the help=omode flag or see SUN/256 for more information.

out=<out-table>
The location of the output table. This is usually a filename to write to. If it is
equal to the special value "-" (the default) the output table will be written to
standard output.

This parameter must only be given if omode has its default value of "out".

ofmt=<out-format>
Specifies the format in which the output table will be written (one of the ones in
SUN/256 - matching is case-insensitive and you can use just the first few letters).
If it has the special value "(auto)" (the default), then the output filename will
be examined to try to guess what sort of file is required usually by looking at the
extension. If it's not obvious from the filename what output format is intended, an
error will result.

This parameter must only be given if omode has its default value of "out".

seqcol=<colname>
Name of a column to be added to the output table which will contain the sequence
number of the input table from which each row originated. This column will contain
1 for the rows from the first concatenated table, 2 for the second, and so on.

loccol=<colname>
Name of a column to be added to the output table which will contain the location
(as specified in the input parameter(s)) of the input table from which each row
originated.

uloccol=<colname>
Name of a column to be added to the output table which will contain the unique part
of the location (as specified in the input parameter(s)) of the input table from
which each row originated. If not null, parameters will also be added to the output
table giving the pre- and post-fix string common to all the locations. For example,
if the input tables are "/data/cat_a1.fits" and "/data/cat_b2.fits" then the output
table will contain a new column <colname> which takes the value "a1" for rows from
the first table and "b2" for rows from the second, and new parameters
"<colname>_prefix" and "<colname>_postfix" with the values "/data/cat_" and ".fits"
respectively.

countrows=true|false
Whether to count the rows in the table before starting the output. This is
essentially a tuning parameter - if writing to an output format which requires the
number of rows up front (such as normal FITS) it may result in skipping the number
of passes through the input files required for processing. Unless you have a good
understanding of the internals of the software, your best bet for working out
whether to set this true or false is to try it both ways

VERSION

       STILTS version 3.4.7-debian

       This is the Debian version of Stilts, which lack the support  of  some  file  formats  and
       network protocols. For differences see
       file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/README.Debian

AUTHOR